Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that bushfires have ravaged the Grampians National Park and associated tourist destinations including Halls Gap, Pomonal and Dunkeld in February 2024 and over Christmas 2024, the latter being a critical annual income period for small businesses in the region;

(2) acknowledges that to protect lives and property, access to towns and tourist sites like Halls Gap was closed in some cases for weeks, depriving them of tourist visitors;

(3) further notes that:

(a) businesses have expressed concern that they have been unable to afford, or even access, insurance against bushfire risk notwithstanding that in Halls Gap's case, the town has never itself been struck by bushfire;

(b) the region was struck again over the 2025 Australia Day public holiday weekend with further fires in the Little Desert National Park at times threatening Dimboola, which led to further park closures and tourists deterred from remaining in the region; and

(c) fires that started over the 2025 Australia Day public holiday weekend have continued to burn in the southern part of the Grampians National Park into February 2025;

(4) commends the bravery, commitment and selflessness of Country Fire Authority services and volunteers, farmers, landholders and community members to protect life and property, fighting and containing the fires; and

(5) calls upon:

(a) all levels of Government to prioritise opening and maintaining access to as much of the Grampians as possible to maximise the social and economic health of the region;

(b) State Governments to:

(i) provide maximum transparency on the bushfire mitigation efforts they undertake, to assist insurers in determining reasonable insurance premiums; and

(ii) fast-track their processes for seeking Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement assistance from the Commonwealth including Category D support for small businesses affected by fire disaster related closures;

(c) the Commonwealth Government to take immediate steps to ensure bushfire insurance is affordable and accessible; and

(d) the Commonwealth and Victorian State Governments to implement a marketing strategy to encourage all Australians to consider travelling to the Grampians as soon as possible to support an internationally renowned attraction and the communities that depend on tourism for their survival.

Last week in the House, I briefly highlighted the peril of communities in the southern part of my electorate due to the ongoing impact of bushfires in the Grampians National Park and Little Desert National Park. The first of these fires in the Grampians began 55 days ago, with the initial fire burning for three weeks near the 450-strong community of Halls Gap. The Grampians fire burned 76,000 hectares, destroying four homes to the south in Moyston and Mafeking, 41 outbuildings and 540 kilometres of fencing. The fire also burnt 10,000 hectares of pasture and 1,285 beehives and killed 775 sheep, not to mention the incalculable cost to native flora and fauna. All up, including the subsequent Little Desert fire, which burnt the western two-thirds of that national park, over 230,000 hectares have burnt in the Grampians and Wimmera area.

Communities near the Grampians National Park have been struck twice in 12 months by natural disaster, after a fire in February 2024 in Pomonal, Dadswell Bridge and Dunkeld, which destroyed 45 homes and cost the local economy an estimated $200 million and hundreds of thousands of tourists. The late-2024 bushfires closed the town of Halls Gap to the public over the lucrative December-January tourist season for 18 days. Some tourist sites remain closed today.

Fire related closures are having a cumulative devastating impact on the Halls Gap community, whose small businesses are struggling to stay afloat and are in desperate need of support. I invited Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton, shadow minister Perin Davey and the member for Wannon to Halls Gap. They heard from constituents who tell me that business owners are at breaking point, with many expressing the feeling of being abandoned by the government as they continue to hear reassurances about resilience rather than tangible support.

Spending in Halls Gap has dropped by 63 per cent since the fires began compared to the same period last year. At the one-month mark, $13 million in business earnings have been lost. As the fires have persisted, an estimated further $8 million has been lost. The Grampians typically attracts between 1.3 million and 1.7 million visitors annually. However, cancellations are now extending until May 2025. Projections suggest that an ongoing reduction in tourism will see total losses in the region of between $34 million and $103 million over the year. This is simply devastating.

It is indisputable that businesses in Halls Gap are in dire need of government financial support, yet, as of the end of last week, the Allan Labor government had still not requested category D assistance from the Australian government under its Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, DRFA, despite ongoing advocacy from every angle. Without this request from the Victorian government, Halls Gap businesses cannot access the maximum amount of funding—or any, for that matter—for recovery from these devastating circumstances.

Insurance costs for some Halls Gap businesses have almost quadrupled since the Pomonal fires in February 2024, with one business paying $55,000 for public liability insurance, which even then does not cover external fire and does not provide business interruption insurance, the very thing they need. There are 120 businesses that cannot get insurance in Halls Gap, even though there is no instance in history where fire has struck Halls Gap itself. I am working continuously with locals, the insurance industry and my coalition colleagues, including the member for Wannon, who is in the chamber right now, to look at solutions to this emerging wicked problem. Under the Albanese Labor government, insurance costs across the nation have risen 18 per cent. These fires, combined with the impact of recent wildfires in Los Angeles on global reinsurance markets, may combine to push insurance premiums up further and make policies even less accessible.

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